Aquascape: Edens Gate

[Manuel Arias]

The bad news are Snails. Lots and lots of snails. Mostly ramshorn and pond snails. I defeated the ramshorn before but they have seem to come back. It's so bad that they got into my spray bar and blocked the spray holes. Water pressure built up and the tip of my bar came off and now I can't find it . For a week I haven't had much flow in my tank. No algae problems came but that stupid oily film built up. I had to do some DIY to increase the flow. I have to wait for my LFS to have more assassin snails in stock. Right now i only have two.

Good job, Aqua Hero. I think your tank will be very beautiful after some time.

Regarding the snails I got a similar problem, and I used assassin snails too, which will decimate the snails population with the time, but they are not very active, so it will take several weeks until you feel their impact, unless of course you introduce many of them. A practical solution that I did and helps quite a lot is to use a small silicon tube to suction them out of the tank. This of course removes water of the tank, but you can perfectly invest some time during the water changes to remove them in this way. As the pipe is small, you can move it in small spaces as well as avoiding damage to the plants. Be careful however with moss and grass, as if they are not well rooted the suction can be a problem. But beyond that, it works. I have been doing that and you see the difference in few days. It is a bit more of work, but with visible impact.

I also recommend you to pay a look to the filter media from time to time, as I also observed that the filter system (mine at least) absorbs snails that remain alive in the filter media, which can propagate to the tank again later, so cleaning the filter for that also helps, if you observe snails on it.

Hope this help.

 

[Aqua Hero]

Good job, Aqua Hero. I think your tank will be very beautiful after some time.

Regarding the snails I got a similar problem, and I used assassin snails too, which will decimate the snails population with the time, but they are not very active, so it will take several weeks until you feel their impact, unless of course you introduce many of them. A practical solution that I did and helps quite a lot is to use a small silicon tube to suction them out of the tank. This of course removes water of the tank, but you can perfectly invest some time during the water changes to remove them in this way. As the pipe is small, you can move it in small spaces as well as avoiding damage to the plants. Be careful however with moss and grass, as if they are not well rooted the suction can be a problem. But beyond that, it works. I have been doing that and you see the difference in few days. It is a bit more of work, but with visible impact.

I also recommend you to pay a look to the filter media from time to time, as I also observed that the filter system (mine at least) absorbs snails that remain alive in the filter media, which can propagate to the tank again later, so cleaning the filter for that also helps, if you observe snails on it.

Hope this help.

Yeah i know about the filter. I will start cleaning it every other week.

I don't want to do extra work so I will just stick to assassins lool. I live the way they look and I don't have to feed them. Also I can sell them when they breed.

I think the scape will be complete is when the weeping moss on the trees grow out fully and they look like real weeping willow trees. This will take a long time but when I have diy co2 it will at least speed up the process. When by the time the miss grows out fully, all the other plants would have grown out fully as well.

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[JBronsveld]

Great looking scape!
Looking forward to see this evolve.

Ryuu looks great too!

 

[Aqua Hero]

Well it's been months now, and things have really grown in well. I got tired of the hydrocotyle sp Japan carpet on the right looking so crap. So I bought a pressurised co2 (since Co2 was my limiting factor) to speed things up. Still waiting for my diffuser to come through the post.

Also sadly Ryuu died of a fungus disease.

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[rebel]

Looking lush! I would consider a massive trim to show off the hardscape more.

Sorry to hear of the tiger.

 

[Aqua Hero]

Looking lush! I would consider a massive trim to show off the hardscape more.

Sorry to hear of the tiger.

Yeah i definitely in the next WC.

It was my fault honestly, I neglected the tank for quite a while, and then the water quality got bad. Even my weeping moss was turning brown and my shrimps were breeding less. Tank was a mess so after the death and dedicated more time. Never will I neglect it like that again.

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[Aqua Hero]

So I need your opinion on this one guys.

I have tons of grass now and I will he planting in the afternoon.

But I'm in a tight spot and can't decide on something.

At the very back of the tank should I have Eloecharis paruvlus and let it grow nice and tall to make a dark background, or should I have Eloecharis Acicularis to make a light background

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[akwarybka]

E. parvula doesn't grow tall enough to make it a background IMO, so I would probably use acicularis

 

[Aqua Hero]

Oh alright Thanks, but it's a bit to late lool. I already put the Eloecharis paruvlus at the back and the Eloecharis Acicularis at the front. I will just trim the Acicularis and let the paruvlus grow wild

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[Aqua Hero]

Okay the Co2 system and new plants are in action.

My weeping moss has got alot of burns from the liquid carbon I was using so I won't be using that's anymore. I have seem alot of new fronds popping out so hopefully the pressurised co2 will bring it back to life.

New plants I have got are:

Eloecharis Acicularis
Eloecharis sp mini
Eloecharis paruvlus
Ammania sp Bonsai
Dwarf baby tears
Mini pellia
Phoenix moss
Rotala wallichi

For now Im putting 6 t5HO bulbs but later I will reduce it to 4.

Fine tuning the Co2 rate to 1 bubble per second is a real pain in the ass. I'm still fiddling with it.

There is some bad news though. An old enemy has returned to my aquarium. HYDRA. yep it came with the phoenix moss. Long ago they almost wiped out my shrimp colony.

Fortunately, after my triumphant victory I saved some dewormer left just incase the villain would return to my forest.

Also I have a question, my spiro glass diffuser is working but I'm not seeing the "spiral' effect in it. Why is that?

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[Clint Hewitt]

Oh alright Thanks, but it's a bit to late lool. I already put the Eloecharis paruvlus at the back and the Eloecharis Acicularis at the front. I will just trim the Acicularis and let the paruvlus grow wild

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I think it looks great like that, being able to see beyond the "trees" creates depth.

 

[Aqua Hero]

I think it looks great like that, being able to see beyond the "trees" creates depth.

Yeah i was watching alot of aquascaping videos and they looked better when they trimmed the massive bush at the background, revealing the hardscape more.

Thanks.

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[Aqua Hero]

Well, second day of planting and first attempt with Co2. I had it on 1 bubble per 2 seconds and my plants are pearling.

Hope that's a good sign

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[Aqua Hero]

After finding and add on Gumtree for blue carbon rili shrimp I fell for the temptation and bought them. I got 6 shrimp Altogether. Three berried females, one normal female, two males and a baby shrimp which I got for free.

Before I bought them I learnt that they can interbreed with the cherries which is no good. So I made a nice diy trap from a cut out bottle and algae wafers.

The next problem I had was were would I put them. I have alot of Cherry shrimp so it will take a while to catch them all or even get close. I needed the breeding box for my Blue carbons. Soo, I dug up some old equipment and found a spare aqua zonic 25w heater and my filter pump. It was supposed to be broken but when I plugged it in it just miraculous worked. Anyways, with some suction cups and prefilter and a bucket (as well as quality British engineering) I was able to make a mini quarantine bucket for my shrimp. I have alot of buyers as well so it will be a good place to store them where I can easily pick them up and give away.

Another thing I was trying to do was catch all my mirco rasboras. Catching the smallest of the micro rasbora sp with a net in a forest. What could possibly go wrong...

...Well nothing 

I took some advice from a guy called ADU Aquascaping on youtube and was able to catch all of them at night so easy. Less than 20 minutes. I am replacing them with green neon tetra for my scape.

They are now in my black bucket along with the cherries ready for sale tomorrow.

As for the aquascape well the plants are pearling and growing fast. Things seem to be going well. I will post pictures tomorrow

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